BACKBONE.

Bullshit. He wants to say. All of that is bullshit. He refrains, leaning against a wall instead, observing Lo, taking in how tired she looks, how unhinged. This incident has shook everyone to their core, that much is obvious. Not that it surprises Julien, death isn’t exactly the easiest to process, specially not when guilt lurks in the corners. 

“Hmm….” It seemed that this was an official statement. Julien hadn’t come to Lo with the intention for an interview, he didn’t need statements from the crew….Yet. He had planned to give them some time to process what had happened but if Lo was ready to talk, he wasn’t going to stop her. “Well, doctor Liang, it seems to me that the safest strategy…” He makes air quotes. “Should’ve been discussed prior to this incident, don’t you think? I’m aware that the situation we are in isn’t common but we do have precedent of another crew exploring a planet, some safety measures should’ve been learned from that mission” He looks down at his tablet, taking a couple of notes, nothing too relevant. “What is your comment on that? Cause to me, someone who doesn’t know much about space missions, it seems that the crew is not in the same page regarding security.”

Lo has to resist rolling her eyes, instead steeling herself and clenching her jaw. She keeps her tone even, unfazed, and nods. “I am, of course, referring to the safest strategy in response to what happened. Safety measures were already in place prior to the incident, with protocol based — as you say — on the precedent set by INFERNO IX.” Lo lets her shoulders relax, trying to figure out her exit strategy, trying to mask her discomfort with speaking to Julien. She did not want to compromise the mission in any way, say something that would end up fucking them, but she wasn’t trained in this — hence her strange, robotic stance toward discussion with Julien. She was always fearful something might be used against her. Despite that, she is able, with great effort, to relax her voice. 

“Finally. Thank you,” Nil sighed. He was beginning to think he was the only one with some common sense on inter-species communication until Lo spoke up. Someone on his side. He made a mental note of that for later. 

“We can always go back to grab them if need be. They weren’t too far away, and with the state of decomposition of that monkey by the lake, they should be there for a while.” Nil dried his hands and leaned against the sink. “Though, really, if we do go back out there, I think we should make a case for no super soldiers accompanying us.” 

“The soldiers are disruptive,” she agreed. “I don’t want to put individuals into quarantine because of excessive contamination, and these geniuses will no doubt get themselves -- or others -- in big trouble.” They were able to send the people in question to decontamination this time, but the official procedure -- if they had continued exposure -- would require something more involved. Lo wanted to avoid that at all costs. 

He looks down at his tablet with a frown. He is supposed to write a report on things, document every moment spent on the ship, write a pretty story for the world to hear. It’s meant to be hopeful, heroic, is meant to be a wonderful story about hot wonderful people worked very hard to give the people on Earth their new home. It’s supposed to have a happy ending. A dead body is not a happy ending. It doesn’t fit in the narrative that Julien knows the politicians want, it doesn’t fit in the little basket with a bow that they want. 

Did they had to get someone killed this early in the mission? It’s a cruel thing to think, he knows as much but he still thinks it, still feels the annoyance of it all. How do you document a dead in a story about hope and the start of new possibilities? Specially if what caused that dead is part of the planet that is supposed the best gift humanity has ever gotten?

“Hmm?” He looks up when he hears a voice, the frown in his face remaining there. Lo is the one talking to him and while he notes the concern in her voice, from the looks of it, he is the one that should be worried about her. “I’m fine.” He means it. Dead wasn’t exactly uncommon around him, people on Earth died all the time, usually at the consequences of their own actions and this didn’t seem that different and it wasn’t as if he was close to the one that had gotten themselves killed. “You….Don’t seem to be holding up that great. No offence.”

“I’m fine,” Lo echoes. It’s all she knows how to do. Plunge forward. There also remains the small fact that Lo is aware Julien is writing, documenting, recording. She knows how this will look. She knows how her panic might appear -- and she knows his loyalties likely don’t lie with them as individuals, but with the audience he serves. And if she feeds into the drama, she’ll be giving him a story. The wrong kind of story. 

he shuffles a deck between his fingers as he lays in bed. jesus christ, this mission was a shit show. he feels totally unqualified to say anything at this point. doesn’t want to underminie the scientists but should they get the fuck out of here? clearly it’s too dangerous to live her. or at least, not without a fucking army to wipe out these disgusting creatures. but he knows some of these people will argue against that, too. mckinley doesn’t even know what to think at this point. doesn’t want to get too involved in something he knows nothing about.

he hears lo muttering, and looks down from his top bunk. she’s not there, but when he pulls himself up, she’s there, looking like total shit. but they all do. “someone’s dead.” he shrugs, frowning. “someone’s dead and we’re all stuck on this ship knowing we all could have done better. and i know this isn’t going to be the last terrible choice we make, but i just pray we don’t land another death.” he wasn’t fully a man of god, but in times like these, god seemed like the only thing to make sense.

“we all need to be in quarantine,” lo thinks aloud, the position she has been advocating since it escaped. “but at this point, this is quarantine. everything is contaminated. this whole place is fucked.” she wipes a hand across her face again, as if trying to smear it all away, but the anger keeps coming. 

when: the morning after the incident / blue’s death  where: sleeping quarters  status: open 

When: 4 hours after the crew returned to the inferno 

Where: The Mess Hall

Open Starter

Ryker had woken up from his cryosleep late, there had to have been a bug in the system or something. Otherwise, he would have woken up with the rest of them. But no, here he was, catching up on the expedition and the attack. He was frustrated that his pod had malfunctioned and caused him to miss out on so much. He knows there’s not much he could have done, but he can’t shake the idea that he should have been on the expedition team. 

“I should have been with the rest of the crew.” He sits in the mess hall, tray in front of him, but he isn’t hungry. When the words come out of his mouth, he’s mostly talking to himself, forgetting that he’s thinking allowed. “I’m trained in combat, I could have helped! I should have been there.” 

His exclamation is soft, as he realizes that people can indeed hear him. He doesn’t want to startle anyone.

Lo had moved on from coffee to actual food, though she could barely swallow it down. She kept thinking of the samples they had lost, of the organisms in the water, of the samples going through the machinery back in the lab. She had half a mind to camp there, waiting for the chem results to come back. Instead, she was still in the mess hall, trying to will herself to eat something, when Ryker spoke. She hadn’t even noticed him come in -- the world was tuned out. 

☓ location: bathing quarters, immediately after the research expedition status: OPEN

Renzo furiously scrubbed his hands beneath the running water. While his skin never made any actual contact with the dead body, nor the eggs that sprouted from its decapitated head, he couldn’t get the sensation of what they felt like out of his head. It was a nervous habit, if anything. 

“This isn’t the way that we need to be researching this area!” He muttered to himself, mostly, but at the presence of someone else joining him in the small quarters, his voice became louder. “If anyone had bothered to listen to me, we wouldn’t have an alien carcass on board with us. Killing an innocent creature isn’t okay!”

Lo had already clawed herself halfway out of the suit. It sloped off her shoulders, bottom half still clinging. She hadn’t seen the vertebrate yet, but she was secretly excited by the opportunity to take a closer look. It wasn’t ideal that they hadn’t found the creature dead, instead had actually made it so, but it still presented a valuable research opportunity. She paused.

• When: One hour after the crew returned to the Inferno
• Where: The Mess Hall
• Open Starter

Twinges of disappointment had tugged at the edges of her mind all day. A few of them had to stay back with the ship, it would have been irresponsible to have done otherwise, and she was aware that she didn’t bring much to the table for an exploratory mission unless some gear was broken along the way. However while she was aware of that fact, she couldn’t help the feelings of discontent that crept in when she watched the majority of the crew take off in the shuttle to go exploring the world they had all traveled so far to see.  

As soon as the crew came back curiosity began to gnaw at her. Despite knowing the captain was going to hold a debriefing that evening, Mila decided to plant herself in the mess hall, sipping a cup of coffee as she waited for someone to meander in.  She didn’t have to wait long.

“So,” she started, not seeing any point in exchanging pleasantries when they walked into the kitchen area, “What was it like down there?”